Paul Hurst challenges referee’s decisions as lowly Grimsby lose to Forest Green

Posted Sunday, March 07, 2021 by PA

Grimsby manager Paul Hurst was left fuming with some decisions of referee Peter Wright after seeing his side fall further into danger with a 2-1 League Two defeat to Forest Green.

Ebou Adams’ second-half goal saw Mark Cooper’s side return to winning ways after their midweek loss to Stevenage.

James Hanson had earlier equalised for the hosts at Blundell Park after Jamille Matt’s first-half penalty, but the lowly Mariners drift further away from safety at the bottom of the table after Barrow and Southend picked up more points.

Hurst though was left frustrated by the referee’s performance, and in particular his awarding of the spot-kick that led to Matt’s opener, with the striker going down softly under the challenge of Lenell John-Lewis.

“We lost the game but I thought it was a much better performance against a team in third, going into it, and I thought we gave as good as we got,” Hurst said.

“We’re very unfortunate not to take anything from the game, but we haven’t.

“I don’t really like talking about it, but I feel like I have to. I’m just not sure what was going on with some of the decisions.

“The lads in the dressing room have said it wasn’t a penalty. We have a deflected goal that’s taken at least a point away from us and the amount of times that James Hanson’s shirt was getting pulled was ridiculous.

“We kept shouting on, they said they saw it but were playing advantage. I thought it was a really poor show on that side.

“If people want to see that as making excuses, it’s not about that, I just didn’t think it was a good enough performance.

“Whether or not any of them were penalties, I’m not sure. Certainly on one occasion both players went down. I’m not saying it definitely was, but they just got away with murder.

“Just because he’s a big lad, it doesn’t give the opposition the right to pull his shirt. It was blatantly obvious and it never went punished all afternoon.”

For Cooper though, his side maintained their title challenge at the top of the table.

Rovers had appeared to be faltering after big defeats at the hands of Southend and Stevenage in recent outings, but victory in Cleethorpes put them back on track.

“It’s just three points, I’m not bothered about anything else,” Cooper said. “It’s just about getting points at this stage of the season.

“We’ve come to a difficult place, the pitch is really difficult and we had to scrap for a win, which we did.

“When you come to a team that are scrapping for their lives at the bottom of the league, the one thing you can’t do is give them any encouragement.

“We conceded a horrendous goal. Dokes (Udoka Godwin-Malife) has been magnificent this season, it was just an aberration from him. He knows and he’s hardly made any mistakes this year.

“We were fairly comfortable in the first half, and like I say, that goal changed the whole landscape of the game.

“It gives them a little bit of a gee up, they get a bit more energy, and it puts us on the back foot.

“I thought we defended really well apart from the goal. We just had to win the game however we did it, and we did just that.”